Quotes of All Topics . Occasions . Authors
Early on, he'd learned to enjoy simple things, things that couldn't be bought, and he had a hard time understanding people who felt otherwise.
We simply cannot afford to allow our government to go unscrutinised, most of all in amid the bleak seeming imperatives of the 'war on terror'.
Sometimes when people are attached to a project, they need persuading to stay attached, and then, in retrospect, they're not the right person.
We need a romantic illusion to embark on relationships in the first place. After that, they survive or fail for other, more practical reasons.
I don't think life is absurd. I think we are all here for a huge purpose. I think we shrink from the immensity of the purpose we are here for.
No physical activity is so vain as boxing. A man gets into the ring to attract admiration. In no sport, therefore, can you be more humiliated.
When lovely woman stoops to folly, and finds too late that men betray, what charm can soothe her melancholy, what art can wash her guilt away?
A museum should not just be a place for fancy paintings but should be a place where we can communicate our lives through our everyday objects.
You know how writers are... they create themselves as they create their work. Or perhaps they create their work in order to create themselves.
The worst thing about the fantasies of the mentally ill is that they're so damned consistent. They never let up. They never give you any rest.
The society whose citizens are willing to stand and fight is the one with the best chance of surviving long enough for history to even notice.
I do not know what it was about that boy but just looking at him, even I wanted to clout him on the head. It was a head that invited violence.
Have the courage to analyze great emotions to create characters who shall be lofty and true. The whole art of the analytical novel lies there.
I'm a family-based person, even though we didn't exactly have a very happy family. I was never in any doubt that this was a centre of writing.
Positive social awareness among the South African educated half-caste is zero. Teaching is a mechanical job. The best way of earning a living.
I hate stand-up comics; I think funny is something you are, not something you desperately try to be in front of a roomful of obnoxious people.
The secret to living in the rush of the world with a minimum of pain is to get as many people as possible to string along with your delusions.
I willingly allow that money does not guarantee happiness; but it must also be allowed that it makes happiness a great deal easier to achieve.
The difference between ambition and discontent is quite a fine line and sometimes it is hard to tell which is which and which you are feeling!
The Odyssey is the story of someone who, in the course of diverse experiences, acquires a personality or affirms and recovers his personality.
Americans don't have saner gun laws because most Americans, including those citizens who puzzle over better angels, don't want saner gun laws.
I'd like, each time out as a writer, to reinvent who I am and what I'm doing. That's one of the great pleasures and rewards of the occupation.
I don't know exactly how long the book as we know it will exist, but I fully expect to make it to my death without having to give up on books.
One cannot see any world leader who has got a grip on the financial markets these days. They're too big, too fast. I think that's quite scary.
What is leadership, after all, but the blind choice of one route over another and the confident pretense that the decision was based on reason
It is one of the worst things of sentiment that the voice grows to be more important than the words, and the speaker than that what is spoken.
The United States is dangerously close to being a plutocracy. A third of the private wealth is owned by less than 5 percent of the population.
I am on Facebook, but mainly as a way to spy on my children. I find out more about them from their Facebook pages than from what they tell me.
What is more true than anything else? To swim is true and to sink is true. One cannot speak any more of being, one must speak onlyof the mess.
People are interested in relevant stories. In big events. But I'm not interested in big things; I'm interested in the smaller details of life.
And might I live long enough to see the world yet again as a place completely different, through eyes that see another truth not yet revealed?
I make no secret of the fact that I would rather lie on a sofa than sweep beneath it. But you have to be efficient if you're going to be lazy.
I have found that all of my memories seem to need a place and that a good part of what we think of as explicit memory has to do with location.
What about passion, dedication, loyalty? Can a robot provide those? No! On the other hand, it's easier to retire a robot when its day is done.
But it's hard to talk about art. Maybe there should be a law against it, some First Amendment gag order like crying fire in a crowded theater.
They don't matter. I thought I had to prove something, and I did, to myself. There's nothing left for me to prove. I can move on with my life.
Alarmed, I realized what my visceral reaction implied: jealousy. Over a guy I barely knew, with whom I’d exchanged more saliva than sentences.
I say I don't believe in love, but that's not really true - love is just the name of an emotion. It's like on steroids. It's lust with ethics.
Say stop, whenever you want to stop. Understand?" I nodded. "Do you want to stop now?" My head moved back and forth to the pillow. "Thank God.
note the similarities with buddhism a buddhist who has achieved nirvana is not sad primarily because it does not know the concept of sad [...]
I've always said a romance hero can be deeply flawed... as long as he's willing to rush into a burning building to rescue a basket of kittens.
Reading a novel in which all characters illustrate patience, hard work, chastity, and delayed gratification could be a pretty dull experience.
What I look for in any character, good or bad, is whether I can hear him speak. If I can imagine him that clearly, then I can write about him.
Did you really want to die?" "No one commits suicide because they want to die." "Then why do they do it?" "Because they want to stop the pain.
I received my draft notice right after graduation from college and had three months before going into the Army in September to think about it.
Friendship is so much healthier than other crutches -alcohol or TV or religious fanaticism. One healthy crutch shouldn't be against the rules.
You marvel at the economy and this choice of words. How many ways can you describe the sky and the moon? After Sylvia Plath, what can you say?
My father says that those who want power and get it live in terror of losing it. That's why we have to give power to those who do not want it.
"You die, I die too.” Tobias looks over his shoulder at me. “I asked you not to do this. You made your decision. These are the repercussions."
I am very interested in human-interest stories emerging from modern India. I get my inspiration and daily dose by reading the Hindustan Times.